It's important to review your benefits plan for the coming open enrollment season to ensure an efficient enrollment. With all of that activity happening throughout the year, it's not surprising that many benefits professionals leave their research to later in the year, which can significantly expand your timeline for open enrollment, causing frustration for your staff -- and more stress for you! Break this negative cycle by starting earlier than you feel like you need to and get your benefits plans decisions completed for the coming year.
Create a Streamlined Process for Renewals
To best get prepped for your annual renewal, you want to ensure your process is simplified. It is vital to come up with a firm plan prior to the start of the open enrollment process and deadlines. There are a number of ways to communicate with employees to inform them of important dates, deadlines, and their benefits options. Hard copy material is a popular choice, as is email. However, as technology has become more advanced, creating a website that employees can access from their mobile devices wherever they are could be a great help to you.
Define a Communication Strategy That Works
Give thought to the best strategy for your team. Do you currently have a large portion of your staff working from home? Now is the best time to consider online enrollment for your remote staff - and even those in the office. Paperless should be the ultimate goal. Do some of your employees have trouble navigating smartphone apps? If so, be sure to block time to help walk them through online enrollment in the office or via online chat.
Utilize Upgraded Online Tools for Staff
Keeping up with technology can be a job in itself. It is best to appoint someone to research the most effective technology tools to make open enrollment easy. Using technology for this purpose is a two-fold approach: Identifying the tools and knowing the most effective way to use them. Look into email, social media, websites, and private Facebook groups as potential devices to add to your open enrollment toolbox. Consider online enrollment for your entire staff. This will save you and your employee time on the lengthy paper forms and ensure accuracy. It is much easier to review the enrollment for your entire staff all at once if you're utilizing online enrollment. Like the Ease platform we use, you can easily run progress reports and see who has not completed enrollment by the end of the enrollment window.
At Eureka Insurance Solutions, our goal is to make sure that your business has the employee benefits that are right for your staff. Plus, we pride ourselves on simplifying the process for you and your staff. Call us at 916-742-7842 today to discuss the best way to set up your renewal. Or download our free pdf: A Practical Guide to Finding Help With Employee Benefits.